Animal activists get Harrisburg 's ear
By Amy Worden
Inquirer Harrisburg Bureau
HARRISBURG - Clacking across the tile floors in high heels, animal-welfare lobbyist Heidi Prescott spies her prey: Rep. Edward Staback of Lackawanna .
Prescott, a senior vice president for the Humane Society of the United States , is one of the lone voices advocating for animals in Harrisburg . Staback is her sometime adversary: the Democratic chairman of the House Game Committee and an avid hunter.
Prescott urges him to consider supporting a bill to ban so-called canned hunts, in which hunters pay to shoot exotic animals in pens.
Even Staback, who agreed to look at the bill, admits: "She's very effective."
"Our constituents don't talk and they don't vote," said Prescott, who is tall and stylishly dressed in a black suit with a blond mane trailing down her back. "There's nothing in it for the reps but to do the right thing."
Prescott, who drives to Harrisburg twice a month from her office outside Washington , is one of three regular animal lobbyists in the Capitol and the only one paid for her work.
Virginia Wolfe, a retired teacher, and Gloria Senavitis, a retired Bethlehem Steel office worker, make their weekly trek from Northeast Pennsylvania on behalf of the Pennsylvania Legislative Animal Network, a statewide animal-protection lobbying group.
Together the three advocates have battled to stop bills they feel promote inhumane treatment of animals and have fought for an array of bills to toughen penalties for cruelty, stop inhumane hunting practices, and reduce the unwanted pet population.
The three women regularly come up against formidable opposition from the state's well-funded hunting and farming interests. And they lack the resources of the well-heeled business lobbyists who wine and dine lawmakers.
Despite the odds, the animal lobby has racked up a string of victories, with the passage of more than a dozen bills benefiting wild animals and pets. In October, the legislature passed a bill banning so-called Internet hunting - in which people from the comfort of their homes use computers to trigger weapons that fire at animals many miles away.
There have been defeats too, like the 2000 vote by the Pennsylvania Game Commission allowing the trapping of bobcats.
But the animal activists say they have seen a change in the attitudes of lawmakers.
When Wolfe started lobbying 10 years ago, laws protecting animals were weak, and there was a sense that lawmakers did not take the issues seriously.
"There were so few laws, and they were so pitiful," she said. "We worked first toward changing attitudes and then to enact laws to benefit animals."
The state's hunting culture - which clears the Capitol on the first day of deer season - still dominates the General Assembly, especially in committee leadership. The office of Rep. Robert Godshall (R., Montgomery) - chairman of the tourism committee, where Prescott 's canned-hunt bill was originally assigned - is a veritable taxidermy gallery of exotic animals.
But some pro-hunting lawmakers are comfortable enough to rib Prescott in the hall.
"Get out hunting this year, Heidi?" calls out Rep. Dan Surra (D., Elk).
Arguably the strongest supporter of animal issues in the General Assembly is Sen. Stewart Greenleaf (R., Bucks), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Over two decades, he has sponsored many animal-protection bills, including one toughening the animal cruelty law after the savage torture and killing of a dalmatian in Bucks County .
During the fight over his "puppy lemon law," Greenleaf recalled, the agriculture community rallied around the state's infamous "puppy mills."
"They saw it as an attack on the ag community," Greenleaf said of the 1997 law, which allows purchasers of sick dogs to get restitution from breeders. "We saw it as harmful to be raising dogs in an inhumane way."
Animal activists may not have the deep pockets of lobbyists for casinos or the drug industry, but they have become more politically savvy.
The Humane Society has borrowed tactics from its opponents. "We've learned from the NRA in terms of training, and we now hold 'Lobbying 101' classes around the country," Prescott said.
Wolfe and Senavitis say they pay their own way to Harrisburg , spending less than $1,000 each year on gas and cafeteria lunches, business suits and sensible shoes.
The level of campaign contributions from the Pennsylvania Legislative Animal Network depends on donors, Wolfe said.
In the late 1990s, PLAN spent $8,000 supporting candidates. But in 2004 the group only had enough to write a single check for $500 to the House Democratic Campaign Committee.
By contrast, gambling interests spent close to $6 million over four years to promote passage of the 2004 gambling expansion law in Pennsylvania .
On the national level, however, Humane USA, the first national political action committee of its kind, has flexed its financial muscle to the tune of $270,000 on state and federal races in 2003-04.
Mike Markarian, chairman of Humane USA, said the group focuses on federal elections. It funneled $6,000 last year to Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.), who sponsored a bill to place puppy mills under federal control. Markarian said the group has been active in New Jersey state politics and will likely endorse state candidates in Pennsylvania this year.
As the new year begins, Prescott and her fellow animal advocates are gearing up for a new political season. They are hopeful for the passage of the canned-hunt bill and another that would make it illegal to leave a dog on a chain for more than 16 hours.
"If we are able to pass one bill protecting wildlife and one protecting companion animals," said Prescott , "it would be a tremendous year for animals in Pennsylvania ."
Contact staff writer Amy Worden at 717-783-2584 or aworden@phillynews.com . |
